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[WillowLuman]

Here's a few pitches I plan on eventually doing something with:


A galactic criminal is hiding out on modern-day Earth, the government sends a number of agents in Earthling disguise to hunt them down. Possibly done in rounds, with the criminal having a different secret project each time. Players have the liberty of designing their operative and method of disguise.


Demons lurk inside the internet, and a chosen few fight them by combining video games with a certain spell to create avatars. Each demon has their own MO and methods for defeating it. Possibly the same setting as that spirits game I once tried to run.


Ambiguous large 1st world country. In times past, werewolves used to be shoved into asylums, but the government has been taking a more progressive approach. They are allowed to live in the general population, but under close supervision. Each werewolf is assigned a case worker who helps them live safely and secretly, and who is charged with "cleaning up" in the event their assignee is compromised.

[AoshimaMichio]

Ssssooooo.... I've been gone a while... I guess... and I'm back, mostly, not quite the same person but mostly the same. Older?
And I have had a game idea.

Mechanical Core of the game
You have four "limbs", which can perform actions simutaneously. Right-Arm, Left-Arm, Stance, and Spellwork. The actions which can be performed by these limbs all share the following traits:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Limb(s) used: Obviously.

Effect: The effect that takes place during Action Time, such as dealing damage, countering a move, shifting your counter table, changing armements, dodging an attack, etc.

Thinking Time: The time you must mentally prepare yourself for a move. Can happen simutaneously with other parts of the move.

Armor Delay Time: Time to return to a natural position from your last move, or to shift wheight to prepare for this move, etc. Often entirely contained within Thinking time, but not always; writen as "X + Y%", because the time this takes is affected by armor. The X is a set ammount, and Y is a percentage of a delay value added by wearing heavy armor.

Tell Time: Time where you start your move, and telegraph the move to your opponent what you are doing. If your opponent is able to react during this time, this is the best time for them to try a counter move. Often partially contained within Thinking time, but sometimes thinking time is already done and rarely entirely contained within thinking time. Like Armor Delay Time, writen as "X + Y%", and like above is calculated the same.

Action Time: How long your move is effective for; for counters and blocks, this could be long, and for strikes this will likely be short. If an attack is interupted before this time, it is stopped, but if it is stopped during this time it is partially effective. Every 20% of the action time stopped is half of any damage stopped; EG 81%-100% is full damage, 61%-80% is half damage, 40%-60% is 1/4 damage, etc. and half of any remaining action time is converted into Recoil time.

Recoil time: How long your limb is unavailible if your move is countered; typically has half the remaining action added to this time as well. As with Armor Delay Time and Tell Time, writen as "X + Y%".

Finish time: If your move is not countered, how long until you can use that limb again.

Further more, many moves (not all) have the following:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Attack Table: For attacks, it's a 5x5 grid, indicating where an attack is aimed. Vertically, it aims High, mid-high, mid, mid-low, and low, and horizontally it aims wide-opposite (at their same limb, eg when using your right hand you aim at their right hand), close-opposite, center, close-near, and wide-near. Attacks like thrusts or jabs will typically be close or center, while slashes will be aimed at wide points.

Counter Table: For counters/blocks, its a 5x10 grid, divided into opposite-handed and same-handed halves for the direction an incoming attack is coming from. Has two colors filled in: full-counters and partial counters. A full counter is a perfect block or counter of the opponent's attack, and usually allows a riposte afterwards with no thinking or idle time (declared before the counter is processed because it's actually part of the counter-move's time), while a partial counter still blocks the move but is clumsier and does not give you the time for an attack of your own immediately afterwards. Alternatively for a perfect counter, you could disarm your opponent and send their weapon flying, depending on the action used. To determine if an attack was countered, if the attack has a square on the targeting table filled in that is covered by a full counter, it is fully countered, if not check for partial counters the same way.

(Note: Stances, like a low crouch, may affect your counter or attack tables by moving all results up, down, left, or right a slot temporarily; anything that falls outside the grid is assumed to hit the ground or the empty air)

Distance: How close your enemy needs to be to hit them, or how far you move when you dodge an attack or approach them.

Rules/FAQ

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

When can you use an action? When the thinking time on an action is up, you may decide your next action; since the action that just finished the thinking time is probably still in progress, that means you can't use an action requiring that limb, but you may use another limb for another action.

So, what actions can you use? Typically that depends on your armement (Stance is usually determined by armor/clothing/lack of anything, what your limbs can do is affected by what they are holding, and spellwork may require you to have a spellbook, stave, or will be innate but very limited), so choose your equipment well. Some actions may require more than one limb; read carefully. If a limb required for a multi-limb action is in use, you cannot use that action, just like single-limb actions.

So this involves no dice rolling? At all? Not entirely true. Spellwork may require dice, depending on the spell. But this will be listed in the spell's effect if required. Also, for calculating your fame reward/loss at the end of a match dice may be used. As a general rule, usually there will be no dice.

How is damaged tracked? Damage is abstracted into hitpoints in three sections: High, Mid, and Low. Strikes in the high or high-mid ranges damage deal damage to your high-zone hit points, mid-high, mid, and mid-low deal damage to your mid hit point pool, and mid-low and low strikes deal damage to your low zones. The armor you are wearing determines how many hit points you start with, but on average (medium-weight/durability armor) you will have 100 high and low hit points and 150 mid hit points (350 total). If any of these three values reach 0, you become disabled and can no longer fight; you live, though, unless your opponent finishes you off, and can fight in another match. If two or all three reach 0, you become dead, can no longer fight, and must make a new character.

What do I earn for winning a match? Money and fame. Fame is used for ranking. If you lose (but survive), then your fame drops (by 10-50 depending - more for someone with less fame, and cannot drop below 0), and if you win, your fame increases (by 25-100, more for someone with more fame). You will typically be paired against someone with a similar amount of fame - not nessesarily, though, sometimes you or an opponent may request a match, or nobody with similar fame will be avalible and your fame disparity will be larger. As for money, victory in the 0-200 fame range earns 20 gold pieces, victory in the 201-500 range earns 50 gold pieces, victory in the 501-1000 fame range earns 100 gold pieces, and higher ammounts of fame earn you 150 gold pieces.  If you have 500 or more fame when you lose, you also earn a consolation prize of 20 gold pieces.

What can I do with money? Well, buy more equipment so you can start matches with other or better gear, upgrade your existing equipment, buy training equipment so that you can do more damage, attack quicker (or convert Tell Time to Armor Delay time), or have more HP; and finally, with 2500 gold pieces, you can purchase your freedom, winning the game. You may choose to continue to fight whenever you want once you've earned your freedom, but no-one is permited to kill you. The punishment for slaying a free man is death.

Why would I want to kill someone? Additional fame and fortune; the crowd loves to see blood, and watching you finish someone off makes them go wild. They may throw money into the ring, which you may keep, and it gives you bonus fame - usually between 10 and 20 extra fame.

Why would I want to spare someone? Reputation. Like fame and fortune, this is earned or lost based on the match outcome. Some actions may also gain or lose you reputation. This is like a high-score - you may have won tetris by clearing 100 lines, but if your score doesn't beat any of the top 5 your name is not immortilized in the arcade machine. Killing an opponent loses you a lot of reputation, and freed gladiators are ranked by their reputation when they bought their freedom (reputation stops being counted after that); nobody wants to hire someone who killed men for pleasure. Reputation starts at 0, and can go both negative and positive. While each win earns you reputation and each loss loses some, the main effect on reputation is mercy or death. Furthermore, whether someone remembers you fondly when you died may also be affected by your reputation: You may wind up in the Gladiator's Memorial if you died in battle with outstanding reputation, but most fallen warriors will wind up in unmarked graves.

Do numbers round up or down? Well, since this game does deal in percents, this is an important issue. If a number is left as a partial number, it actually rounds to a decimal place, a single decimal place, rounding down whereever nessesary. EG 15% of 17 is 2.89, which rounds to 2.8, regardless of what they taught you in math.

2 on 2? FFA? Maybe later. It would involve trigonometry instead of just 1 dimension math on the GM's part, and he's not excited about that, but if it happens, when an action is taken, choose an opponent to perform this action at (or if dodging away, to move away from), similar to how the Tales of Symphonia battle system works. Character positions would still be recorded relative to eachother, rather than setting up a grid, and I'd record the angles they are at reletive to the others.

Why do the actions listed in armors have % times? While Armor is the primary source of delay for these times, some equipment that you carry adds time to the Armor Delay; you aren't Link who's Iron Boots weigh nothing when you aren't wearing them, they weigh something while in your backpack or hanging off your belt, too.

Character Sheet

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Name: Obvious, and requires a first name - last middle or nick names not nessesary, but fine.
Gold Remaining: Starts at 200 pieces, used to buy starting equipment
Fame: 100
Reputation: 0, additional reputation can be bought at 1 gold piece for 10 Reputation
Right-Limb Equipment: Not nessesarily your main hand, doesn't even require equipment, but having something here is useful. Purchased using gold.
Left-Limb Equipment: Same as right hand.
Armor: You could be nude. It's not recomended, and rough cloth clothing is free. So are manacles, for that matter. Fancier stuff requires gold to buy.
Carried Equipment: Stuff on your person, but not held or worn. Stuff like nets, extra swords in their scabbards, daggers secreted about your person, spell components, whatever. Costs gold to buy.
Additional Equipment: Stuff you leave in your cell/barracks/private armory/home/mansion. Extra equipment so you can vary your gear between fights, training equipment, etc. Costs gold to buy.

Equipment(WIP, will probably be moved to a google doc for final version)
Armor: Nudity/near Nudity (WIP)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Armor Delay: 80
High HP: 40
Mid HP: 60
Low HP: 60

Run Forward 1 step Stance
Thinking time: 150, Armor Delay Time: 0 + 0%, Tell Time: 80 + 0%, action time: 80, finish time: 80
Effect: Move towards opponent, percent of action time is % of distance
Distance: 6

Run Forward 2 steps Stance
Thinking Time: 150, Armor Delay Time: 20 + 0%, Tell Time: 100 + 0%, action time: 160, finish time: 80
Effect: Move towards opponent, percent of action time is % of distance
Distance: 14

Run Forward 3 steps Stance
Thinking Time: 150, Armor Delay Time: 40 + 0%, Tell Time: 120 + 0%, action time: 240, finish time: 80
Effect: Move towards opponent, percent of action time is % of distance
Distance: 24

Dodge Back 1 step Stance
Thinking Time: 100, Armor Delay Time: 0 + 0%, Tell Time: 60 + 0%, Action time: 80, finish time: 80
Effect: Move away from opponent, percent of action time is % of  distance
Distance: 8

Crouch Stance
Thinking Time: 100, Armor Delay Time: 0+0%, Tell Time: 100 + 50%, Action Time: 600, Finish time: 80
Effect: Move your counter and attack tables down one cell each for Action Time duration. For thinking time of 25, you may cancel the Crouch and cancel all remaining Action time.

Backflip Stance
Thinking Time: 150, Armor Delay Time: 80 + 50%, Tell Time: 200 + 25%, Action Time: 300, finish time: 100
Effect: Move your counter and attack tables up one cell each for Action Time duration. Move away from opponent, percent of action time is % of  distance.
Distance: 12

Roll Stance, Right-hand, Left-Hand
Thinking Time: 150 + X, Armor Delay Time: 90 + 60%,  Tell Time:  100 + X + 50%, Action Time: 600, finish time: 0
Effect: CHOOSE AN ACTION WITH LEFT, RIGHT, OR BOTH HANDS BEFOREHAND. Add it's thinking time and tell time to the respective times of this action. Move your counter and attack tables down two cells for the action time duration. Move towards your opponent, percent of action time is % of distance. At the end of this action perform the chosen action, ignoring thinking time, Armor delay time, and tell time, but with the counter and attack tables still moved down for the duration of the chosen move's action time.
Distance: 15

Ewww, gross Spellcasting
Thinking time: 50, Armor Delay Time: 0 + 0%, Tell Time: 70 + 0%, Action time: 50, recoil time: 0+0%, finish time: 80
Effect: You draw attention to your nudity and distract your opponent. Add 100 to the thinking time of the action they are thinking of at the end of the action. Being countered does not add time to recoil time, and reduces the amount of thinking time added by % of action time lost instead of being treated like damage. Treat full counters as partial counters.
Attack Grid:

O	X	X	X	O
O	O	X	O	O
O	O	O	O	O
O	O	O	O	O
O	O	O	O	O

Armor: Iron-Studded Leather (WIP)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Armor Delay: 350
High HP: 100
Mid HP: 150
Low HP: 100
Run Forward 1 step Stance
Thinking time: 150, Armor Delay Time: 0 + 10%, Tell Time: 80 + 12%, action time: 80, finish time: 80
Effect: Move towards opponent, percent of action time is % of distance
Distance: 6

Run Forward 2 steps Stance
Thinking Time: 150, Armor Delay Time: 20 + 10%, Tell Time: 100 + 12%, action time: 160, finish time: 80
Effect: Move towards opponent, percent of action time is % of distance
Distance: 14

Run Forward 3 steps Stance
Thinking Time: 150, Armor Delay Time: 40 + 10%, Tell Time: 120 + 12%, action time: 240, finish time: 80
Effect: Move towards opponent, percent of action time is % of distance
Distance: 24

Dodge Back 1 step Stance
Thinking Time: 100, Armor Delay Time: 0 + 10%, Tell Time: 60 + 12%, Action time: 80, finish time: 80
Effect: Move away from opponent, percent of action time is % of  distance
Distance: 8

Crouch Stance
Thinking Time: 100, Armor Delay Time: 0+10%, Tell Time: 100 + 50%, Action Time: 600, Finish time: 80
Effect: Move your counter and attack tables down one cell each for Action Time duration. For thinking time of 25, you may cancel the Crouch and cancel all remaining Action time.

Backflip Stance
Thinking Time: 150, Armor Delay Time: 80 + 80%, Tell Time: 200 + 50%, Action Time: 300, finish time: 100
Effect: Move your counter and attack tables up one cell each for Action Time duration. Move away from opponent, percent of action time is % of  distance.
Distance: 12

Roll Stance, Right-hand, Left-Hand
Thinking Time: 150 + X, Armor Delay Time: 90 + 60%,  Tell Time:  100 + X + 50%, Action Time: 600, finish time: 0
Effect: CHOOSE AN ACTION WITH LEFT, RIGHT, OR BOTH HANDS BEFOREHAND. Add it's thinking time and tell time to the respective times of this action. Move your counter and attack tables down two cells for the action time duration. Move towards your opponent, percent of action time is % of distance. At the end of this action perform the chosen action, ignoring thinking time, Armor delay time, and tell time, but with the counter and attack tables still moved down for the duration of the chosen move's action time.
Distance: 15

High-close Stud-catch One Arm (pick)
Thinking time: 70, Armor Delay Time: 60 + 20%, Tell Time: 100 + 30%, Action Time: 120, Finish time: 50
Effect: You use the iron studs on your armor to catch the opponents weapon. A full counter disarms their weapon, casting it onto the ground.
Counter Grid: (Opposite/same Hand | Close/other Hand)

O	O	P	F	P	|	P	P	P	P	O
O	O	P	F	P	|	P	F	P	O	O
O	O	O	O	P	|	P	P	O	O	O
O	O	O	O	O	|	O	O	O	O	O
O	O	O	O	O	|	O	O	O	O	O

Weapon: Rapier (WIP)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

If carried but not equiped, +40 to armor delay

Equip/unequip One empty hand
Thinking time: 60, Armor Delay Time: 0 + 40%, Tell Time: 50 + 20%, Action Time: 30, Finish Time: 40
Effect: Either equips the rapier to the selected had - if taking it from the other hand, also requires the use of that hand - or puts the rapier back in it's holster.

High Thrust Equipped-Hand
Thinking Time: 70, Armor Delay Time: 40 + 30%, Tell Time: 50 + 15%, Action Time: 50, recoil time: 10 + 10%, Finish time: 20
Effect: Deals 10 damage to High HP.
Attack Grid:

O	O	X	X	O
O	O	O	O	O
O	O	O	O	O
O	O	O	O	O
O	O	O	O	O

Mid cross-thrust Equipped-Hand
Thinking Time: 70, Armor Delay Time: 40 + 30%, Tell Time: 50 + 15%, Action Time: 50, recoil time: 10 + 10%, Finish time: 20
Effect: Deals 10 damage to Mid HP.
Attack Grid:

O	O	O	O	O
O	O	O	O	O
O	X	O	O	O
O	O	O	O	O
O	O	O	O	O

Mid-Close-thrust Equipped-Hand
Thinking Time: 70, Armor Delay Time: 40 + 30%, Tell Time: 50 + 15%, Action Time: 50, recoil time: 10 + 10%, Finish time: 20
Effect: Deals 10 damage to Mid HP.
Attack Grid:

O	O	O	O	O
O	O	O	O	O
O	O	O	X	O
O	O	O	O	O
O	O	O	O	O

Low Thust Equipped-Hand
Thinking Time: 70, Armor Delay Time: 40 + 30%, Tell Time: 50 + 15%, Action Time: 50, recoil time: 10 + 10%, Finish time: 20
Effect: Deals 10 damage to Low HP.
Attack Grid:

O	O	O	O	O
O	O	O	O	O
O	O	O	O	O
O	X	O	O	O
X	O	O	O	O

Low Swish outward cross-Parry Equipped-Hand
Thinking Time: 90, Armor Delay Time: 20 + 20%, Tell Time: 30 + 20%, Action Time: 60, Finish Time: 30
Effect: CHOOSE AN ATTACK-ACTION BEFOREHAND. Counters an attack. If the attack is fully-countered, execute the chosen action without any thinking time or armor delay time.
Counter Grid: (Opposite/same Hand | Close/other Hand)

O	O	O	O	O	|	O	O	O	O	O
O	O	O	O	O	|	O	O	O	O	O
P	P	O	O	O	|	P	O	O	O	O
F	P	O	O	O	|	P	F	P	O	O
P	F	P	O	O	|	F	P	P	O	O

That all sounds needlessly complex and more fitting for a PC game than a forum game. Too much stuff to keep track of, too much detailed information. In that game I don't see the benefits of having a human GM. But that's me, I think I have seen mechanically complex games here before too so it may work.

[flabort]

Here's the benefit: players can take over for the GM once they learn the system; if their thinking time would be over before tell time, or the decision is being made simutaneously, they would need to PM the GM or put their actions in a spoiler, but in all other cases they could resolve the move themselves. The GM would still need to determine matchups and match rewards once a victor has been decided, and if spells use dice then they'd need to for those results, but otherwise very little is needed.

Let's say there are two players in a fight. One is nude (Player A), the other is wearing iron-studded leather(Player B), and they both have a rapier (because that's all I've made so far); player A has it in his right hand, and player b has it in his left. It's the start of the match, and they started a distance of 50 away. The match starts with them making a simultaneous decision, and then proceeds from there:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Player A (To GM): Run forward 3 steps.
Player B (to GM): Run forward 2 steps.
GM: OK, those both resolve at 150 time. You need to make another simultaneous decision.

• Player A Stance: Tell Time 10 remaining, Run forward 3 steps
• Player B Stance: Tell Time 42 remaining, run forward 2 steps
• Distance: 50

Player A (to GM): I will make a low thrust.
Player B (to GM): I think he'll be agressive. I'll make a low outwards swish cross parry.
GM: Player A resolves first.

• Player A Stance: Action Time Remaining: 180, Run forward 3 steps (6/24 moved)
• Player A Right Arm: Tell time 56 remaining, low thrust
• Player B thinking time remaining: 20
• Player B Stance: Action time remaining: 132, run forward 2 steps (2.4/14 moved)
• Player B Left Arm: 20 armor delay time remaining.
• Distance: 41.6

Player A: I don't have anything equipped in my left hand, and you haven't created any more actions for me to take other than Ewww Gross, so I'll use that. I don't know Player B's action, but I have no tell time.
Player B: Alright. My action was low outwards swish cross parry. My thinking time resolves before yours, so my action is... GM! Get off your lazy butt and make more actions! But my decision is next an this is what the field looks like:

• Player A thinking time: 30
  
• Player A Stance: Action Time Remaining: 160, Run forward 3 steps (6+2/24 moved)
• Player A Right Arm: Tell time 36 remaining, low thrust
• Player A spellcasting: Tell time remaining: 50, ewwww gross
  
• Player B Stance: Action time remaining: 112, run forward 2 steps (2.4+1.8/14 moved)
• Player B left arm: tell time 100 remaining, low outwards swish cross parry
  
• Distance: 37.8

Player B: And I think I'm going to delay, let you take your action next Player A, speeding time forward to your action, so...
 nah, too lazy. You want to calculate?

So yes, it IS too needlessly complex. Darn it.

[AoshimaMichio]

For me best part of the forum games is the story GM and players tell together. Game mechanics are entirely secondary concern, but can be used to introduce fun and chaotic twists to take the story into new unpredictable and interesting directions.

And as a GM that's source of my endless frustration: I come up with neat mechanics, work them out on paper and then end up wondering what the hell I'm actually going to do with it, what's the reason for the system to exist and ultimately dump them somewhere, probably into trashbin.

[Draignean]

Ssssooooo.... I've been gone a while... I guess... and I'm back, mostly, not quite the same person but mostly the same. Older?
And I have had a game idea.

Mechanical Core of the game
You have four "limbs", which can perform actions simutaneously. Right-Arm, Left-Arm, Stance, and Spellwork. The actions which can be performed by these limbs all share the following traits:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Limb(s) used: Obviously.

Effect: The effect that takes place during Action Time, such as dealing damage, countering a move, shifting your counter table, changing armements, dodging an attack, etc.

Thinking Time: The time you must mentally prepare yourself for a move. Can happen simutaneously with other parts of the move.

Armor Delay Time: Time to return to a natural position from your last move, or to shift wheight to prepare for this move, etc. Often entirely contained within Thinking time, but not always; writen as "X + Y%", because the time this takes is affected by armor. The X is a set ammount, and Y is a percentage of a delay value added by wearing heavy armor.

Tell Time: Time where you start your move, and telegraph the move to your opponent what you are doing. If your opponent is able to react during this time, this is the best time for them to try a counter move. Often partially contained within Thinking time, but sometimes thinking time is already done and rarely entirely contained within thinking time. Like Armor Delay Time, writen as "X + Y%", and like above is calculated the same.

Action Time: How long your move is effective for; for counters and blocks, this could be long, and for strikes this will likely be short. If an attack is interupted before this time, it is stopped, but if it is stopped during this time it is partially effective. Every 20% of the action time stopped is half of any damage stopped; EG 81%-100% is full damage, 61%-80% is half damage, 40%-60% is 1/4 damage, etc. and half of any remaining action time is converted into Recoil time.

Recoil time: How long your limb is unavailible if your move is countered; typically has half the remaining action added to this time as well. As with Armor Delay Time and Tell Time, writen as "X + Y%".

Finish time: If your move is not countered, how long until you can use that limb again.

Further more, many moves (not all) have the following:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Attack Table: For attacks, it's a 5x5 grid, indicating where an attack is aimed. Vertically, it aims High, mid-high, mid, mid-low, and low, and horizontally it aims wide-opposite (at their same limb, eg when using your right hand you aim at their right hand), close-opposite, center, close-near, and wide-near. Attacks like thrusts or jabs will typically be close or center, while slashes will be aimed at wide points.

Counter Table: For counters/blocks, its a 5x10 grid, divided into opposite-handed and same-handed halves for the direction an incoming attack is coming from. Has two colors filled in: full-counters and partial counters. A full counter is a perfect block or counter of the opponent's attack, and usually allows a riposte afterwards with no thinking or idle time (declared before the counter is processed because it's actually part of the counter-move's time), while a partial counter still blocks the move but is clumsier and does not give you the time for an attack of your own immediately afterwards. Alternatively for a perfect counter, you could disarm your opponent and send their weapon flying, depending on the action used. To determine if an attack was countered, if the attack has a square on the targeting table filled in that is covered by a full counter, it is fully countered, if not check for partial counters the same way.

(Note: Stances, like a low crouch, may affect your counter or attack tables by moving all results up, down, left, or right a slot temporarily; anything that falls outside the grid is assumed to hit the ground or the empty air)

Distance: How close your enemy needs to be to hit them, or how far you move when you dodge an attack or approach them.

Rules/FAQ

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

When can you use an action? When the thinking time on an action is up, you may decide your next action; since the action that just finished the thinking time is probably still in progress, that means you can't use an action requiring that limb, but you may use another limb for another action.

So, what actions can you use? Typically that depends on your armement (Stance is usually determined by armor/clothing/lack of anything, what your limbs can do is affected by what they are holding, and spellwork may require you to have a spellbook, stave, or will be innate but very limited), so choose your equipment well. Some actions may require more than one limb; read carefully. If a limb required for a multi-limb action is in use, you cannot use that action, just like single-limb actions.

So this involves no dice rolling? At all? Not entirely true. Spellwork may require dice, depending on the spell. But this will be listed in the spell's effect if required. Also, for calculating your fame reward/loss at the end of a match dice may be used. As a general rule, usually there will be no dice.

How is damaged tracked? Damage is abstracted into hitpoints in three sections: High, Mid, and Low. Strikes in the high or high-mid ranges damage deal damage to your high-zone hit points, mid-high, mid, and mid-low deal damage to your mid hit point pool, and mid-low and low strikes deal damage to your low zones. The armor you are wearing determines how many hit points you start with, but on average (medium-weight/durability armor) you will have 100 high and low hit points and 150 mid hit points (350 total). If any of these three values reach 0, you become disabled and can no longer fight; you live, though, unless your opponent finishes you off, and can fight in another match. If two or all three reach 0, you become dead, can no longer fight, and must make a new character.

What do I earn for winning a match? Money and fame. Fame is used for ranking. If you lose (but survive), then your fame drops (by 10-50 depending - more for someone with less fame, and cannot drop below 0), and if you win, your fame increases (by 25-100, more for someone with more fame). You will typically be paired against someone with a similar amount of fame - not nessesarily, though, sometimes you or an opponent may request a match, or nobody with similar fame will be avalible and your fame disparity will be larger. As for money, victory in the 0-200 fame range earns 20 gold pieces, victory in the 201-500 range earns 50 gold pieces, victory in the 501-1000 fame range earns 100 gold pieces, and higher ammounts of fame earn you 150 gold pieces.  If you have 500 or more fame when you lose, you also earn a consolation prize of 20 gold pieces.

What can I do with money? Well, buy more equipment so you can start matches with other or better gear, upgrade your existing equipment, buy training equipment so that you can do more damage, attack quicker (or convert Tell Time to Armor Delay time), or have more HP; and finally, with 2500 gold pieces, you can purchase your freedom, winning the game. You may choose to continue to fight whenever you want once you've earned your freedom, but no-one is permited to kill you. The punishment for slaying a free man is death.

Why would I want to kill someone? Additional fame and fortune; the crowd loves to see blood, and watching you finish someone off makes them go wild. They may throw money into the ring, which you may keep, and it gives you bonus fame - usually between 10 and 20 extra fame.

Why would I want to spare someone? Reputation. Like fame and fortune, this is earned or lost based on the match outcome. Some actions may also gain or lose you reputation. This is like a high-score - you may have won tetris by clearing 100 lines, but if your score doesn't beat any of the top 5 your name is not immortilized in the arcade machine. Killing an opponent loses you a lot of reputation, and freed gladiators are ranked by their reputation when they bought their freedom (reputation stops being counted after that); nobody wants to hire someone who killed men for pleasure. Reputation starts at 0, and can go both negative and positive. While each win earns you reputation and each loss loses some, the main effect on reputation is mercy or death. Furthermore, whether someone remembers you fondly when you died may also be affected by your reputation: You may wind up in the Gladiator's Memorial if you died in battle with outstanding reputation, but most fallen warriors will wind up in unmarked graves.

Do numbers round up or down? Well, since this game does deal in percents, this is an important issue. If a number is left as a partial number, it actually rounds to a decimal place, a single decimal place, rounding down whereever nessesary. EG 15% of 17 is 2.89, which rounds to 2.8, regardless of what they taught you in math.

2 on 2? FFA? Maybe later. It would involve trigonometry instead of just 1 dimension math on the GM's part, and he's not excited about that, but if it happens, when an action is taken, choose an opponent to perform this action at (or if dodging away, to move away from), similar to how the Tales of Symphonia battle system works. Character positions would still be recorded relative to eachother, rather than setting up a grid, and I'd record the angles they are at reletive to the others.

Why do the actions listed in armors have % times? While Armor is the primary source of delay for these times, some equipment that you carry adds time to the Armor Delay; you aren't Link who's Iron Boots weigh nothing when you aren't wearing them, they weigh something while in your backpack or hanging off your belt, too.

Character Sheet

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Name: Obvious, and requires a first name - last middle or nick names not nessesary, but fine.
Gold Remaining: Starts at 200 pieces, used to buy starting equipment
Fame: 100
Reputation: 0, additional reputation can be bought at 1 gold piece for 10 Reputation
Right-Limb Equipment: Not nessesarily your main hand, doesn't even require equipment, but having something here is useful. Purchased using gold.
Left-Limb Equipment: Same as right hand.
Armor: You could be nude. It's not recomended, and rough cloth clothing is free. So are manacles, for that matter. Fancier stuff requires gold to buy.
Carried Equipment: Stuff on your person, but not held or worn. Stuff like nets, extra swords in their scabbards, daggers secreted about your person, spell components, whatever. Costs gold to buy.
Additional Equipment: Stuff you leave in your cell/barracks/private armory/home/mansion. Extra equipment so you can vary your gear between fights, training equipment, etc. Costs gold to buy.

Equipment(WIP, will probably be moved to a google doc for final version)
Armor: Nudity/near Nudity (WIP)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Armor Delay: 80
High HP: 40
Mid HP: 60
Low HP: 60

Run Forward 1 step Stance
Thinking time: 150, Armor Delay Time: 0 + 0%, Tell Time: 80 + 0%, action time: 80, finish time: 80
Effect: Move towards opponent, percent of action time is % of distance
Distance: 6

Run Forward 2 steps Stance
Thinking Time: 150, Armor Delay Time: 20 + 0%, Tell Time: 100 + 0%, action time: 160, finish time: 80
Effect: Move towards opponent, percent of action time is % of distance
Distance: 14

Run Forward 3 steps Stance
Thinking Time: 150, Armor Delay Time: 40 + 0%, Tell Time: 120 + 0%, action time: 240, finish time: 80
Effect: Move towards opponent, percent of action time is % of distance
Distance: 24

Dodge Back 1 step Stance
Thinking Time: 100, Armor Delay Time: 0 + 0%, Tell Time: 60 + 0%, Action time: 80, finish time: 80
Effect: Move away from opponent, percent of action time is % of  distance
Distance: 8

Crouch Stance
Thinking Time: 100, Armor Delay Time: 0+0%, Tell Time: 100 + 50%, Action Time: 600, Finish time: 80
Effect: Move your counter and attack tables down one cell each for Action Time duration. For thinking time of 25, you may cancel the Crouch and cancel all remaining Action time.

Backflip Stance
Thinking Time: 150, Armor Delay Time: 80 + 50%, Tell Time: 200 + 25%, Action Time: 300, finish time: 100
Effect: Move your counter and attack tables up one cell each for Action Time duration. Move away from opponent, percent of action time is % of  distance.
Distance: 12

Roll Stance, Right-hand, Left-Hand
Thinking Time: 150 + X, Armor Delay Time: 90 + 60%,  Tell Time:  100 + X + 50%, Action Time: 600, finish time: 0
Effect: CHOOSE AN ACTION WITH LEFT, RIGHT, OR BOTH HANDS BEFOREHAND. Add it's thinking time and tell time to the respective times of this action. Move your counter and attack tables down two cells for the action time duration. Move towards your opponent, percent of action time is % of distance. At the end of this action perform the chosen action, ignoring thinking time, Armor delay time, and tell time, but with the counter and attack tables still moved down for the duration of the chosen move's action time.
Distance: 15

Ewww, gross Spellcasting
Thinking time: 50, Armor Delay Time: 0 + 0%, Tell Time: 70 + 0%, Action time: 50, recoil time: 0+0%, finish time: 80
Effect: You draw attention to your nudity and distract your opponent. Add 100 to the thinking time of the action they are thinking of at the end of the action. Being countered does not add time to recoil time, and reduces the amount of thinking time added by % of action time lost instead of being treated like damage. Treat full counters as partial counters.
Attack Grid:

O	X	X	X	O
O	O	X	O	O
O	O	O	O	O
O	O	O	O	O
O	O	O	O	O

Armor: Iron-Studded Leather (WIP)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Armor Delay: 350
High HP: 100
Mid HP: 150
Low HP: 100
Run Forward 1 step Stance
Thinking time: 150, Armor Delay Time: 0 + 10%, Tell Time: 80 + 12%, action time: 80, finish time: 80
Effect: Move towards opponent, percent of action time is % of distance
Distance: 6

Run Forward 2 steps Stance
Thinking Time: 150, Armor Delay Time: 20 + 10%, Tell Time: 100 + 12%, action time: 160, finish time: 80
Effect: Move towards opponent, percent of action time is % of distance
Distance: 14

Run Forward 3 steps Stance
Thinking Time: 150, Armor Delay Time: 40 + 10%, Tell Time: 120 + 12%, action time: 240, finish time: 80
Effect: Move towards opponent, percent of action time is % of distance
Distance: 24

Dodge Back 1 step Stance
Thinking Time: 100, Armor Delay Time: 0 + 10%, Tell Time: 60 + 12%, Action time: 80, finish time: 80
Effect: Move away from opponent, percent of action time is % of  distance
Distance: 8

Crouch Stance
Thinking Time: 100, Armor Delay Time: 0+10%, Tell Time: 100 + 50%, Action Time: 600, Finish time: 80
Effect: Move your counter and attack tables down one cell each for Action Time duration. For thinking time of 25, you may cancel the Crouch and cancel all remaining Action time.

Backflip Stance
Thinking Time: 150, Armor Delay Time: 80 + 80%, Tell Time: 200 + 50%, Action Time: 300, finish time: 100
Effect: Move your counter and attack tables up one cell each for Action Time duration. Move away from opponent, percent of action time is % of  distance.
Distance: 12

Roll Stance, Right-hand, Left-Hand
Thinking Time: 150 + X, Armor Delay Time: 90 + 60%,  Tell Time:  100 + X + 50%, Action Time: 600, finish time: 0
Effect: CHOOSE AN ACTION WITH LEFT, RIGHT, OR BOTH HANDS BEFOREHAND. Add it's thinking time and tell time to the respective times of this action. Move your counter and attack tables down two cells for the action time duration. Move towards your opponent, percent of action time is % of distance. At the end of this action perform the chosen action, ignoring thinking time, Armor delay time, and tell time, but with the counter and attack tables still moved down for the duration of the chosen move's action time.
Distance: 15

High-close Stud-catch One Arm (pick)
Thinking time: 70, Armor Delay Time: 60 + 20%, Tell Time: 100 + 30%, Action Time: 120, Finish time: 50
Effect: You use the iron studs on your armor to catch the opponents weapon. A full counter disarms their weapon, casting it onto the ground.
Counter Grid: (Opposite/same Hand | Close/other Hand)

O	O	P	F	P	|	P	P	P	P	O
O	O	P	F	P	|	P	F	P	O	O
O	O	O	O	P	|	P	P	O	O	O
O	O	O	O	O	|	O	O	O	O	O
O	O	O	O	O	|	O	O	O	O	O

Weapon: Rapier (WIP)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

If carried but not equiped, +40 to armor delay

Equip/unequip One empty hand
Thinking time: 60, Armor Delay Time: 0 + 40%, Tell Time: 50 + 20%, Action Time: 30, Finish Time: 40
Effect: Either equips the rapier to the selected had - if taking it from the other hand, also requires the use of that hand - or puts the rapier back in it's holster.

High Thrust Equipped-Hand
Thinking Time: 70, Armor Delay Time: 40 + 30%, Tell Time: 50 + 15%, Action Time: 50, recoil time: 10 + 10%, Finish time: 20
Effect: Deals 10 damage to High HP.
Attack Grid:

O	O	X	X	O
O	O	O	O	O
O	O	O	O	O
O	O	O	O	O
O	O	O	O	O

Mid cross-thrust Equipped-Hand
Thinking Time: 70, Armor Delay Time: 40 + 30%, Tell Time: 50 + 15%, Action Time: 50, recoil time: 10 + 10%, Finish time: 20
Effect: Deals 10 damage to Mid HP.
Attack Grid:

O	O	O	O	O
O	O	O	O	O
O	X	O	O	O
O	O	O	O	O
O	O	O	O	O

Mid-Close-thrust Equipped-Hand
Thinking Time: 70, Armor Delay Time: 40 + 30%, Tell Time: 50 + 15%, Action Time: 50, recoil time: 10 + 10%, Finish time: 20
Effect: Deals 10 damage to Mid HP.
Attack Grid:

O	O	O	O	O
O	O	O	O	O
O	O	O	X	O
O	O	O	O	O
O	O	O	O	O

Low Thust Equipped-Hand
Thinking Time: 70, Armor Delay Time: 40 + 30%, Tell Time: 50 + 15%, Action Time: 50, recoil time: 10 + 10%, Finish time: 20
Effect: Deals 10 damage to Low HP.
Attack Grid:

O	O	O	O	O
O	O	O	O	O
O	O	O	O	O
O	X	O	O	O
X	O	O	O	O

Low Swish outward cross-Parry Equipped-Hand
Thinking Time: 90, Armor Delay Time: 20 + 20%, Tell Time: 30 + 20%, Action Time: 60, Finish Time: 30
Effect: CHOOSE AN ATTACK-ACTION BEFOREHAND. Counters an attack. If the attack is fully-countered, execute the chosen action without any thinking time or armor delay time.
Counter Grid: (Opposite/same Hand | Close/other Hand)

O	O	O	O	O	|	O	O	O	O	O
O	O	O	O	O	|	O	O	O	O	O
P	P	O	O	O	|	P	O	O	O	O
F	P	O	O	O	|	P	F	P	O	O
P	F	P	O	O	|	F	P	P	O	O

You and me should get together some time and make a baby. The most mechanically complex baby ever conceived.

[Tyrant Leviathan]

http://pantaloonacy.freeforums.org/onslaught-clash-of-nations-t160.html

Link to thread I tried my war/ arms deal. They were not keen on it.

[escaped lurker]

Link to thread I tried my war/ arms deal. They were not keen on it.

Not to be scathing, but I am not surprised - nor would you fare much better with it on here.
You put in more options and complexity, than 3/4 of modern strategy games have. Contained in a forum game, without any "makeup" like colourful / advanced formating or graphics, either.
If you'd have put up all that tech for research throughout the course of the game, with only some sort of "starting tech" visible, people might be more interested - but "pick the 40 techs of your ww2 faction", is already extremely tedious from the get-go. The resulting game also seems like it would take months to play, which shies away people even further - be it because they don't think they can invest that much time themselves, or because they rightfully doubt many others would stick with it for long.

Simply put, you made it far too overwhelming, with little appeal. For most, it would seem like a waste to invest time. At that point, it doesn't matter how good the game actually might be, as people won't even give it a chance. I'd be surprised if more people read through all of it, than you spent hours writing it up.

[Tyrant Leviathan]

True true. That was attempt once. Which is time consuming and I have played it with real life people. Took about seven weeks to finish as a different thing was used. That was just tech tree. I was thinking of changing the system around to be more forum friendly. And if I had graphics in this phone I would have used it.

[ATHATH]

You and me should get together some time and make a baby. The most mechanically complex baby ever conceived.

Someone should sig this.

[Digital Hellhound]

I bet Draig says that to all the other girls, too.

[StrawBarrel]

Here's a few pitches I plan on eventually doing something with:


A galactic criminal is hiding out on modern-day Earth, the government sends a number of agents in Earthling disguise to hunt them down. Possibly done in rounds, with the criminal having a different secret project each time. Players have the liberty of designing their operative and method of disguise.


Demons lurk inside the internet, and a chosen few fight them by combining video games with a certain spell to create avatars. Each demon has their own MO and methods for defeating it. Possibly the same setting as that spirits game I once tried to run.


Ambiguous large 1st world country. In times past, werewolves used to be shoved into asylums, but the government has been taking a more progressive approach. They are allowed to live in the general population, but under close supervision. Each werewolf is assigned a case worker who helps them live safely and secretly, and who is charged with "cleaning up" in the event their assignee is compromised.

All three concepts sound really interesting for sure, but the werewolf one piqued my interest the most. I'm not exactly sure why though. Maybe the idea of not having a character antagonist, but rather the werewolfism affliction, makes it stand out from the other two. Well actually, I guess for sure the duality of aiding the werewolf dudes live normalish lives and action/drama of something going awry is very appealing. It sounds like the police ideal to serve and protect combined with werewolves, but at the same time the game can take on plenty of other themes and tones. (I don't want to narrowcast the idea or anything, just went on a bit of a slight tangent.)

Have any thoughts on whether they'd be roleplaying or suggestion games? If roleplaying, I could see the first and second ones easily being competitive games with opposing sides and the third one possibly being either mission-based and focused on clean-ups or having players choose between taking the role of a case worker or a werewolf.

[TheBiggerFish]

@Hugo:Video game fighting?  Want.

[Draignean]

I bet Draig says that to all the other girls, too.

Only the ones that confuse me.

Which, in all honesty, explains a great about my current life situation.

[TheBiggerFish]

I have a strong urge to apply hugs to Draignean right now.

[Draignean]

I have a strong urge to apply hugs to Draignean right now.

Nah, I'm happy with my current life situation. Euphoric, on most days.

One should endeavor to always be confused by life. I pity the man who clearly understands the world and everything in it.

Life is messy and confusing, but it's best to find someone to be confused with. That way you have someone to hide with after you poke life with a stick and it jiggles a little too menacingly.

//OffTopic